William Hupy wrote:Try this, directly from Italian, or so I am led to believe: portolan. Relating to ports.

Dictionary.com doesn't like this one, preferring portolano, but a few others do. It isn't quite an adjective, though. I'll let Wikipedia demonstrate so I don't have to do all the writing myself.

Portolano becomes Rutter:

A rutter is a mariner's handbook of written sailing directions. Before the advent of nautical charts, rutters were the primary store of geographic information for maritime navigation.

It was known as a periplus ("sailing-around" book) in Classical antiquity and a portolano ("port book") to Medieval Italian sailors in the Mediterranean Sea. Portuguese navigators of the 16th century called it a roteiro, the French a routier, from which the English word "rutter" is derived. In Dutch, it was called a leeskarte ("reading chart") and in German a Seebuch ("sea book").

No mention as to why it became rutter and not what I consider the more sensible router.

Portolan is essentially a map:

Portolan or portulan charts are navigational maps based on compass directions and estimated distances observed by the pilots at sea.

Life is like playing chess with chessmen who each have thoughts and feelings and motives of their own.